Are you a candidate for COPD?

October 12, 2018

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly referred to as COPD, is achronic inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs. It’s one of the many conditions that we treat here at BreatheAmerica and can be completely debilitating for patients experiencing its symptoms. It’s strange, then, that most people don’t know what causes COPD until they’ve already been diagnosed.

That’s why we thought we’d take the time to outline exactly what causes COPD, and what it looks like to live life with it.

Symptoms

The trademark symptom of COPD is a shortness of breath. This will usually be the first symptom, so it’s important that you know not to ignore this.Mild COPD will almost always progress to severe COPD.

Another symptom is a chronic cough accompanied by wheezing and tightness of the chest. These symptoms will a lot like the symptoms of asthma, which is why getting to the doctor early is paramount. The doctor should be able to differentiate between thesymptoms of COPD versus the symptoms of asthma and provide treatment accordingly.